USL News Release
Friday, August 5, 2011
BREMERTON, Wash. – The Kitsap Pumas rallied from a halftime deficit as a pair of goals by Matt Friesen lifted them to a 3-1 victory against the Thunder Bay Chill and send the side into its first USL PDL Championship game at Bremerton Memorial Stadium on Friday night.
Despite having most of the play, the Pumas found themselves down at the break after a penalty kick was converted by Thunder Bay’s Gustavo Oliveira. The Pumas finally broke through after the break, though, as Bryan Burke headed home before Friesen’s double, including a remarkable shot from a narrow angle, gave his side victory.
The host Pumas opened the game strongly, putting together good attacking movements but failing to find a quality finish. The best early chance fell to Robby Christner, who shot wildly after a good knock-down by Daniel Scott from a free kick into the penalty area.
The Chill, who reached the final in 2010, eventually settling into a counter-attacking rhythm, and it was that approach that brought them the opening goal. Luis Rodriguez broke down the right side and into the penalty area, and as he went to cut the ball back onto his right foot, he was brought down by Kitsap’s Elliott Fauske. Oliveira stepped up and sent Kitsap goalkeeper Bryan Meredith the wrong way on the Chill’s first shot of the night.
But despite being down at the break, Friesen said the side held onto the belief that the goals were coming.
“We went in at halftime and were like, ‘you know, we’re 1-0 down, but it’s coming,’ ” Friesen said. “ ‘We’re not going to change anything, we’re just going to go as we are and hopefully we get one,’ and we got three.”
The first came from a set piece on the hour mark as Chrisner found Burke for a close-range header. Then Friesen scored what proved to be the game-winner in the 72nd minute after the Pumas were able to hold pressure inside the Thunder Bay penalty area. The ball came to Friesen on the right, and he lashed a shot just inside the post, finding the left side-netting.
“I didn’t see a pass, so I was like, ‘I’m going to hit this across the face, hopefully it gets a touch,’ it was going to be dangerous either way down there,” Friesen said. “It came a little bit inside-out and just went straight in. I wasn’t necessarily going for a straight in, but it went straight in.”
That proved to be too much for the Chill to overcome.
“I think we did OK in the first half, but the better of the legs got to us,” Thunder Bay coach Tony Colistro said. “We’ve done a lot of travel this year and we saw it against them in the second half. They’re a good teams and they deserved to win for sure.”
Friesen added the third from the penalty spot in second-half stoppage time, icing an impressive victory. The Pumas will now face the Laredo Heat on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. PDT for the championship in a game that can be seen on FOX Soccer. After a strong victory in front of their passionate supporters, Friesen is excited to play for a championship in front of them.
“It’s huge, and I’m glad [owner] Robin [Waite] and the community were able to bring it here because it would mean so much more if we can win it in front of our fans, “ Friesen said. “It’s the biggest game some of us will have played and it means a lot to all of us. A lot of us are getting older and came back this year saying this maybe is our last year, we don’t know, but we’ve got to go and win it.”